The Chariots of God

19: "Take each thing that is wrong in your lives as God's chariot for you. No matter who the builder of the wrong may be, whether men or devils, by the time it reaches your side it is God's chariot for you, and is meant to carry you to a heavenly place of triumph."

20: The Life on Wings

"No; it is useless for the soul to hope to escape by running away from its troubles to any earthly refuge, for there is not one that can give it deliverance. Is there, then, no way of escape for us when in trouble or distress? Must we just plod wearily through it all and look for no relief? I rejoice to answer that there is a glorious way of escape for every one of us if we will but mount up on wings and fly away from it all to God."

The Joy of Obedience

17: "Let your heart and your hand be as free to serve Him as His heart and hand were to serve you."

18: Divine Union

"If we are really one with Christ, therefore, it will not be contrary to our nature to be Christlike and to walk as He walked, but it will be in accordance with our nature. Sweetness, gentleness, meekness, patience, long-suffering, charity, kindness, will all be natural to the Christian, who is a partaker of the nature of Christ. It could not be otherwise."

Practical Results in Daily Use

16: "No life can be complete that fails in its little things. A look, a word, a tone of voice even, however small they may seem to human judgement, are often of vital importance in the eyes of God."

"Thou art united to thy Lord by a wondrous tie; walk, then, as He walked, and show to the unbelieving world the blessed reality of His mighty power to save, by letting Him save thee to the very uttermost. Thou needst not fear to consent to this, for He is thy Saviour, and His power is to do it all...Take each little step as He makes it plain to thee. Bring all thy life, in each of its details, to Him to regulate and guide. Follow gladly and quickly the sweet suggestions of His Spirit in thy soul."

Growth/Service

14: "Let me entreat of you, then, to give up all your efforts after growing, and simply to let yourselves grow. Leave it all to the Husbandman whose care it is, and who alone is able to manage it. No difficulties in your case can baffle Him. If you will only put yourselves absolutely into His hands, and let Him have His own way with you, no dwarfing of your growth in the years that are past, no apparent dryness of your inward springs of life, no crookedness or deformity in your development, can in the least mar the perfect work that He will accomplish."

15: "It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one, and makes us love to do the thing we before so hated."

Is God in Everything?

12: "The truth really is that His care is infinitely superior to any possibilities of human care; and that He, who counts the very hairs of our heads, and suffers not a sparrow to fall without Him, takes note of the minutest matters that can affect the lives of His children, and regulates them all according to His own perfect will, let their origin be what they may. The instances of this are numberless. Take Joseph. What could have seemed more apparently on the face of it to be the result of sin, and utterly contrary to the will of God, than the action of his brethren in selling him into slavery? And yet Joseph, in speaking of it said, 'As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.'"

13: Bondage or Liberty

"If a child of loving parents should get the idea that its parents would not give it food and clothing unless it earned them in some way, all the sweetness of the relationship between parent and child would be destroyed."

The last Difficulties

10: Concerning Temptation

"Sin makes an easy prey of a discouraged soul; so that we fall often from the very fear of having fallen."

11: Concerning Failures

"This life of union with God requires the utmost honesty with Him and with ourselves."

sooo blessed!

Today, I went shopping for shoes with my 12-yr-old brother, adopted from Russia. He was so wonderful. He kept apologizing for taking so long, but I wasn't in a hurry. He couldn't make up his mind or find his size. Poor guy had to have a cavity filled right beforehand, and he started to claim that his leg was going numb (he's still a little paranoid of the doctor/dentist!) The best part was when we got home though. A couple hours later, he came up to me and handed me three dollars. I was confused and asked what it was for. He looked at me and said, "Jesus." Misha is going to support me in my ministry as his tithe for his monthly allowance!

Nothing could bless me as much as that, but I also just found out that Dr. James White (the guy who shared the gospel when Lecrae began his relationship with Christ) is speaking at the San Diego Winter Conference!!!

I thought today was Friday

This morning God's Word just really jumped out at me.  I felt Jesus' love because of what I read about, (lately, the topic of temptation has been coming up a lot, and I love that I could learn more from the Bible on that subject today.)  On Tuesday, I asked my brother what I should read, and he said Luke.  Today I opened to Luke 4, where Jesus is tempted by Satan.  This part really made me think:

"And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, 'To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.' And Jesus answered him, 'It is written,

"You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"

I thought, why didn't Jesus take charge of the whole world?  That would be pretty cool if Satan wasn't still ruling the earth.  But, obviously Jesus' obedience to only worship God was more important.  That made me realize that if Jesus wouldn't give in and worship anything beside God (for all the kingdoms and glory of the earth) then it is better for me not to worship anything except for my God.  

I felt the need to share these thoughts with my brother, but then I apologized for getting a little preachy.  His response was, "Yeah, I thought today was Friday"

Just now, I told him that if he hadn't suggested for me to read Luke, he wouldn't have gotten a sermon. My sister was like, "You went to church today!?"

difficulties concerning guidance and doubts

8:  "Some, however, may say here, 'But I thought we were not to depend on our unenlightened human understanding in Divine things.'  I answer to this that we are not to depend upon our unenlightened human understanding, but upon our human judgement and common sense enlightened by the Spirit of God."  

9:  "Look right at Jesus, and tell Him that you do trust Him, and that you intend to go on trusting Him.  Then let the doubts clamor as they may, they cannot hurt you if you will not let them in.  I know it will look to you sometimes as though you were shutting your door against your best friends...but deny yourself; take up your cross in this matter, and quietly but firmly refuse ever to listen to a single word."   

Difficulties...

5: "Difficulties Concerning Consecration"

"Come once more to Him, in a surrender of your whole self to His will, as complete as you know how to make it.  You must ask Him to reveal to you, by His Spirit, any hidden rebellion; and if He reveals nothing, then you must believe that there is nothing, and that the surrender is complete."  

6: "Difficulties Concerning Faith"

"You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you.  Trust Him now for everything and see if He does not do for you exceedingly abundantly, above all that you could ever have asked or even thought, not according to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power, working in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will." 

7: "Difficulties Concerning the Will"

"If, therefore, you have in your will taken the steps of surrender and faith, it is your right to believe even now, no matter how much your feelings may clamor against it, that you are all the Lord's."  

The Life Defined/How to Enter In

3:  '"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:  because he trusteth in thee.'  This is the Divine description of the life of faith about which I am writing.  It is no speculative theory, neither is it a dream of romance.  There is such a thing as having one's soul kept in perfect peace, now and here in this life; and childlike trust in God is the key to its attainment."

4:  "I wish only I could show to every one the unfathomable sweetness of the will of God...could we but for a moment get a glimpse into the mighty depths of His love, our hearts would spring out to meet His will and embrace it as our richest treasure and we would abandon ourselves to it with an enthusiasm of gratitude and joy that such a wondrous privilege could be ours."  

The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life...

...by Hannah Whitall Smith

I started this book that was lent to me by my aunt.  I hope you enjoy some of my favorite quotes from each chapter!

1:  "The cross of Christ, by the same might and decisive stroke where with it moved the curse of sin away from us, also surely moves away the power and the love of it from over us."  

2:  "Trust is the beginning and the continuing foundation; but when we trust, the Lord works, and His work is the important part of the whole matter.  And this explains that apparent paradox which puzzles so many.  They say, 'In one breath you tell us to do nothing but trust, and in the next you tell us to do impossible things.  How can you reconcile such contradictory statements?'  They are to be reconciled, just as we reconcile the statements concerning a saw in a carpenter's shop when we say, at one moment, that the saw has sawn asunder a log, and the next moment declare that the carpenter has done it.  The saw is the instrument used; the power that uses it is the carpenter's.  And so we, yielding ourselves unto God, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto Him, find that He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, and we can say with Paul, 'I labored; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.'"

TMNT party

My sister's vision for my welcome home party came true this past weekend.  

The movie is sooo good!  

Colorado

My mom wanted some pictures in addition to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As I mentioned before, my sister Becky wants to have a welcome home party for me and watch the greatest films of all time...TMNT!!!  So, one morning, when I saw one of my fellow new staff members of Campus Crusade for Christ supporting the cause, I had to take a picture.  The next couple days I was excited to see more fans!!!

when I get confused about my earthly home

2 Corinthians 4-5

^3-15We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

 ^16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

 ^1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.

 ^6-8That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

 ^9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that's what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we'll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.

 ^11-14That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That's why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We're not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we're on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.

mis hermanas

My sisters are a blessing! I talked to them for the first time in almost 2 weeks last night. They are so loving! Irina cracks me up...she said she couldn't eat for two days because she ate too much at her friend's house. I asked her what she ate, but she didn't know what it was...crazy girl!

Then, there's Becky. She said she's having a welcome-home party for me soon after I get home on July 30th. The plan for the party: to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And, she has a bugbite. She said it was kind of weird when she went to the mall, just walking around with her eye swelled shut.

One of my teachers from high school also blessed me this weekend! She's visiting her daughter in Fort Collins, so I got to hang out with her and her grandkids. So fun since I'm not living with anybody under the age of 22 for a while. We re-enacted Cinderella and ate good food!

Colorado

I'm visiting Colorado State University for about 6 weeks for new staff training with Campus Crusade for Christ.  I'm reminded how blessed we are in America!  Being in a new place for a while, I have to find a new church.  It's too easy!  Seven different Christian churches were recommended to us within 15 minutes driving distance.  I found several others, and one is only .2 miles away!  That makes me want to praise God for my community of brothers and sisters here! That makes me want to pray for my brothers and sisters in other places where it's much more challenging to worship Jesus!  

そだね みか！

Mika!!!  I miss you so much too!!!  I just found this hat!  I had forgotten about it!  I want to give it to you someday ♥

Yes...I left June.13.2008.  ちょmiss 日本！

June 10th!

3 more days and I've been away from Japan for a whole year!  I miss you all!!!  

Corinthians

Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you've got, be resolute, and love without stopping. -1 Corinthians 16:13

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. -2 Corinthians 3:17                  (I recommend chapters 3-5; I'm still learning)  

Yogurtlando

I do not do so well with goodbyes, but I really loved hanging out with Madoka and Asuna this semester!!!  We will certainly meet again someday...anytime I visit Japan or they visit America!

a great friend of mine...

A great friend of mine says that "his dad, brother and [him] think the five motifs of rap are women, money (which can include cars), sports (basketball), drugs (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana), and violence (firearms)." Initially I was in strong disagreement, since the majority of my music is Christian rap. However, he pointed out that even my favorite artists use these themes...

"Jesus did walk with women in a special way
This was odd for men in the first century
Look at God callin' women to the ministry
Jesus did walk with the ladies"
-Flame, L.A.D.I.E.S

"Got money, got whips, got ice
Still broke homeboy! No Christ
Got a debt to pay, some real heavy wages
And the payment for his sin is pretty outrageous
I seen him park the car, suicide doors
Without Christ he walking through a suicide door
The dollar bill say in God we trust
Its funny cause money is the only God we trust"
-Trip Lee, Cash or Christ

"Small things can produce much,
like the good news that can reach hood dudes like a toothbrush
God loves that, loves the upset
loves to beat Jordan with a measly Spud Webb."
-The Cross Movement, Big Things

"No matter who you are, tonight is open bar.
Propose a toast:
So get you cups up, get your drink on,
It's living water, baby,
Get your mind in order, baby.
Get loose if you wanna get loose,
‘Cause we got that juice to make you choose truth,
Over there they pop Busch,
Over there they got Goose,
Over here we keep it grade-A 150 proof."
-Gritz, Open Bar

"Ever since I been sworn in, born in
put through boot camp, it's on
ain't got no time for no nuisance
it's three squares a day
PT, study, pray, little play
'cause what soldier got time for blasé?
specially when Yahweh is bringin D-Day
without M16, rocket launcher, or AK
cause this ain't Vietnam
the Enemy's more vicious than the Vietcong"
-The Cross Movement, Civilian Affairs

Pictures are with The Ambassador (Cross Movement), Trip Lee, and another great friend of mine who invited me to the church where they go!

"'Come now, and let us reason together,'" says the Lord, "'Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'" Isaiah 1:18

Overbrook High School

This is where Will Smith went to high school!!!

deserted island

You know how people sometimes ask what one thing you would want if you were on a deserted island. I decided tonight that I would want sunscreen.

Japan

I really love when things in America remind me of Japan. Except recently I was reading about "inverted homesickness" and I feel that way sometimes. Life is funny!

do not worry

Jesus' words help me to see how wrong my thinking is and how amazing my life is because I have Him:

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" ("Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?") "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:25-34

always accepted, not rejected

I don't read very many books, but I'm reading one now and really like this:

"In one sense, God is a "tasteless friend." Seemingly He is endlessly tolerant about those who come to Him for help and endlessly patient in waiting for those others to recognize the need of His help. But He has a solid foundation to do just that. His Son died for each person so as to deal with the issue of wrongdoing; the Spirit of God washed every one who has come to Christ; God the Father has set apart for Himself all who trusted His Son as children under His constant care, and finally each and every child of God has been justified with God's righteousness which means they are infinitely accepted and never rejected." -David Eckman, Sex Food & God p. 53

happy things in life

I love seeing my old roommates! I guess you have no choice but to grow really close to the people you live with. But seriously, my heart could barely contain the joy I had yesterday when I saw my Japan roommate!

Similarly, my heart was pounding as I just read a note from a friend in Japan. She accepted Jesus into her heart about 10 months ago. She was saying that her first choir practice (which is where she heard the gospel numerous times) was January 14th, 2008. Mika was ecstatic, because they also had rehearsal on January 14th, 2009. Oh how the angels must rejoice and sing with Mika!

Home sweet home

I love the feeling when you've been gone for a long time. That's when it feels sooooo good to get home! The sight of the front door of the house I'm living in was just absolutely stunning to me today. Wherever I call home, it's just a beautiful and comforting place. What will heaven be like??